(This article was first published in the Souvenir brought out commemorating the 7th National Conference of Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations held in Chennai on 26 & 27 December 2009)
What is Rationalism?
In Epistemology (the branch of philosophy studying the nature, sources and limits of knowledge) “Rationalism” is “the theory that reason rather than experience is the foundation of certainty in knowledge”. Those who accept rationalism in this epistemological sense assert that knowledge is gained a priori (prior to experience) and is often contrasted with Empiricism which is “the theory that all knowledge is based on experience derived from the senses”. Read the full story
Share on Facebook
Bangalore, 11/12 August 2009
The “Indian Silicon Valley” is now in ‘panic’. The pandemic of swine flu hasepts got the better of the outwardly modern Bangaloreans. You see boys and girls promenading through the air-conditioned malls in their trademark tight jeans, with inane slogans blazed across their t-shirts. Now, after the swine-flu, they have an extra-fitting added - a mask. It looks like they have taken a fancy for this stuff. With the mask, they now look exactly like pigs!
The morning newspapers scream that the swine flu toll has risen to seven. According to one newspaper the total number of positive cases of the viral disease detected in the country as on 10 August 2009 stood at 864 and the number of confirmed cases in Karnataka stood at 92. (Deccan Chronicle, Bangalore, 11 August 2009). Schools in the city are reported to have been closed.
After having had a light-hearted discussion in the morning with a colleague about the irrational behavior of those who are affected by the fear of swine-flu, I was jolted in the afternoon by a cell-phone SMS that reads: “Pass this message to everyone. Use ‘Nilgiri Oil’ drops on handkerchiefs and masks as one of the preventive measures against swine flu (NIV) - National Institute of Virology.”
The National Institute of Virology in Pune is a pre-eminent institution in India, doing solid research in viral infections and other related fields. And here is a message straight from the horse-mouth advising me to panic and make others panic! As a common man with scanty knowledge of viral infections and the possible medical properties of Eucalyptus Oil (commonly known as Nilgiri Oil in this part of the world, though the tree is not indigenous to Nilgiri Hills, or even India), what should I do? Should I forward the message to my colleagues, friends, and relatives to save them from an imminent attack of the deadly swine-flu? Here is a simple remedy available even in provision stores and with street peddlers! These were the thoughts that flashed across my mind in an instant. Read the full story
Share on Facebook
On 22 July 2009 part of India is going to witness a total Solar Eclipse. Scientists from India and abroad have already started arriving at various places lying in the path of the total eclipse with their equipments to study this celestial spectacle. Scientifically aware common people are also waiting for this moment with their eclipse-viewing glasses, pinhole cameras, and reflectors including ordinary mirrors. It is indeed a spectacle to be witnessed and experienced.
At the same time in India we have the largest number of superstitious masses, fear-mongering astrologers, and religious preachers who treat this beautiful natural phenomenon as a bad omen. Hiding inside their homes, they stop eating and drinking anything during this period. The pregnant women fear to venture out. The really religious ones throw away the cooked food, as the eclipse would make them inedible! They conduct pujas at their homes and in temples and take a dip in their ‘holy’ rivers and ponds to cleanse themselves of the ‘evil’ effects of the eclipse, when their pet god is being swallowed by the demons! Read the full story
Share on Facebook
June 2009. Itarsi, Madhya Pradesh.
I was accompanying Prof. Narendra Nayak on his tour of MP and Bihar, conducting workshops exposing the miracle-men (and women!). Itarsi was reeling under scorching heat. We regularly gulped chilled bottled water to get some relief from the debilitating heat. Power cuts and load shedding - scheduled and unscheduled - added to the misery of the people. Business establishments - including roadside juice parlors - had installed diesel generators to get over the frequent power cuts. Sitting there in a tiny room in President’s Hotel, opposite Itarsi Railway Station, I could hear the booming sound of generators. I read in the newspapers that the whole of the State was similarly affected from a delayed monsoon. Wells and lakes had dried up. The Hitavada reported (June 19, 2009, Jabalpur edition) from the state capital, Bhopal, that the water level of Upper Lake, the life-line of the city, was at 1674ft- the lowest in its recorded history. In many parts of the city, police were called in to control the crowd collecting drinking water. It is thus only natural that the state government explored all available avenues to lessen the hardships of its people or at least to divert the wrath of its citizens.
Read the full story
Share on Facebook
I intend to respond to some of the criticisms leveled against the view I expressed in my article “Why I criticize Hinduism the Most” - the most prominent being the comments posted by Kafir in this website. I have also received a few responses, mostly favorable, from the readers of the ezine I bring out, Bangalore Skeptic. The favorable responses I happily ignore!
Read the full story
Share on Facebook
I celebrated the New Year (going by the Julian calendar, I mean; not the Malayalam New Year, my favorite!) by attending the 7th World Atheist Conference held at Vijayawada in the first week of January 2009. The conference was organized by the Atheist Centre founded by Gora, the Gandhian atheist and the center is now run by his children and grandchildren. It is the second time that I have attended the conference - now a biennial one. Although it was called the “World Conference”, all of the foreign delegates were from Europe, making the conference more of a Euro-Indian one, than a “world conference” proper.
Read the full story
Share on Facebook
Posted on 23 December 2008
“Section 49-O” of the Constitution of India!
T.V.Manoj
(With valuable inputs from Somu Rao, Goa Science Forum)
One of the most nauseating scenes Indians witnessed after the horrific Mumbai terror attack on November 26 was the parade of India’s supposedly apolitical class in front of every other 24/7 television channels, airing their illiterate opinions on politics and governance. Some wanted the country to ‘nuke’ Pakistan. Some others wanted presidents’ rule - American style! Yet another group wanted to abolish politics in the country altogether and the army to rule the country! They paraded as if - as N.Ram, editor-in-chief of The Hindu group of publications pointed out in a lecture given at a meeting recently organized by Samudaya, a progressive theater group based in Bangalore, - these reactionary forces would govern the country with their placards!
Read the full story
Share on Facebook
I reproduce here a write-up that appeared recently in the Times of India (Bangalore, 20 November 2008). According to one Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev (I have no clue who this gentleman is!) as quoted by the article, “applying vibhuti in different points of the body can bring positive energy”. The article is reproduced here without any comment. Rather, the claims made in the article are so hilarious (even outrageous at times) that it does not require any comment!
Unfortunately, that is not the way it is seen by the believers. When I referred the article to a few of my “spiritually-inclined” friends, they animatedly described the spiritual powers of these holiest of holy items. Undoubtedly, these “benefits” are derived, according to them, from a mysterious play of some “positive” and “negative” energy.
Read the full story
Share on Facebook
Along with photographs of skimpily clad girls, a prominent feature of Times of India, the largest selling English daily in the country, is its peddling of new age claptrap. In addition to two daily columns - Speaking Tree and Sacred Space- the newspaper has a separate section in its Sunday edition to cater to the needs of new age buffs. Named “Mind Over Matter“, the section carries assorted stuffs - book extracts, book reviews, Q&A column, etc. Though the paper does feature prominently the activities of all peddlers of nonsense, Sri Ravishankar and Deepak Chopra are perhaps TOI’s pet new-age gurus.
Read the full story
Share on Facebook
Why do you criticize Hinduism more than any other religion? This is a question often posed to us - the rationalists, secularists and atheists in India- by the proponents of Hindutwa?
Read the full story
Share on Facebook
